A London coroner today Wednesday spoke of the ‘ins

A London coroner today Wednesday spoke of the ‘insidious’
nature of the over-the-counter pain-killing tablet Paracetamol
after hearing how a Bristol housewife died of an overdose.

‘The insidious thing about it is that you can take
an overdose 48 hours before – even three or four days before –
and then take to your bed and just feel out of sorts.

‘It is like a period of quiescence,’ said Southwark coroner
Sir Montague Levine.

But in that period of apparent recovery irreversible damage
was being done to the liver, although the drug was safe if taken
within the prescribed dose.

Bristol-born housewife Mrs Phyllis Mawson, 56, of 13
Quilter Grove, Inns Court, Bristol, was admitted to Bristol Royal
Infirmary on February 7 after waking up very ill.

Mrs Mawson, who was in poor health, had not told her
husband, retired bus driver Joseph Mawson, that she had previously
taken Paracetamol – which they never even kept in the house.

He said he suspected she had bought the pills when
he took her out shopping.

She never admitted to hospital staff she had taken the drug
but it was soon discovered she was suffering liver failure
and rushed the next day to London’s internationally famous
liver unit at Kings College Hospital.

Sadly she died there on Febreuary 17.

She had been considered for a liver transplant but was
too ill, said consultant pathologist Dr.

Patrick O’Donnell.

He said it was not possible to say how many of the tablets
she had taken or when, but he suspected she had swallowed them
48 hours or more before she was admitted to hospital in Bristol.

In recording an open verdict, Sir Montague said there was
insufficient evidence to show she had intended to kill
herself.

He paid tribute to her husband who had cared for her
during her long illness – emphysema – which caused her
breathlessness and ‘a deteriorating quality of life.

‘
Mr.

Mawson had told the inquest that he had looked after
his wife for 16 years.

‘She got to the stage where I had to do everything for her.

She could no longer cook or go out alone.

She became very
depressed.

‘
The coroner told him: ‘The fact that she survived all that
time was in large part due to you.

You are a very caring family.

‘
In reply, one of the couple’s three daughters, who attended
the inquest with her father, said of the staff at Kings College:
‘They were fantastic.

We thanked all the nurses there.

‘
The coroner replied: ‘I shall note those comments on
the record.

It is a hospital of great excellence, especially with
regard to the treatment of liver disease.

For anyone with even
a remote chance of survival, this is the hospital – with all the
knowledge at its disposal – to deal with it.

‘
ENDS
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